Euphy snorted.
"This must be the weakest nation I've ever seen. How the hell did they survive against Axel?"
She said this as she entered a shop in search of maps of the region, completely unaware of what was happening beneath the ground.
Below the city streets, cultivators rushed toward a hidden dungeon guarded by a massive steel door bound with heavy chains.
BANG BANG BANG
Something slammed violently against the door, demanding to be released.
The cultivators watched tensely, sweat dripping down their foreheads. They had never seen the creature so enraged.
Still, it was to be expected.
After all, its master had been humiliated by a treacherous demon.
CLING CLING CLING
The chains rattled rapidly as they released the beast.
BOOM
The door exploded, and the creature burst out, its bloodlust knocking its liberators unconscious.
Many others following it behind.
"It's not very far," Euphy sighed, looking at the map inside the shop.
Moments later, however, she swallowed hard as sweat ran down her forehead.
"How the hell am I supposed to explain this?" Euphy trembled. "Myself, a demon, invaded a human city and caused trouble in human territory… damn it…"
With a sigh, she turned to leave the shop—but suddenly her eyes widened.
"Why did the mist change color?"
She narrowed her gaze at the purple fog ahead.
"Suspicious…"
Her eyes followed the cracks beneath the door as the gas slowly seeped into the building.
Euphy cautiously extended her fingers toward the gas to investigate.
The instant she touched it, the poison infiltrated her fingers, turning them purple as infernal pain surged through her body.
She clenched her teeth, stifling a scream as she fell backward, the venom crawling up her hand, trying to reach her arm.
Without hesitation, she severed her forearm, tears welling in her eyes, then immediately activated her healing artifact.
Her chest rose and fell erratically as she struggled to recover.
"Unbearable. Completely unbearable. Every part of me screamed like never before. How the hell did they create something like this?"
Her eyes widened as she looked toward the mist outside.
Two yellow eyes glowed within it.
"Shit!"
Euphy quickly steadied herself as the eyes drew closer.
BOOOOM
The shop exploded as a gigantic serpentine head smashed through it in pursuit of Euphy.
She dodged aside as the basilisk spewed more and more mist around her.
"Tsk!" Euphy clicked her tongue, scanning the area as fast as possible for an escape route.
The basilisk lunged again, trying to bite her and destroying everything in its path.
Euphy rolled to the side, reached a door, threw it open, and was met with a staircase, which she rushed up.
BOOOM
The door exploded behind her as the basilisk pursued her, a single bite more than enough to devour her whole.
"Get lost, you ugly snake!"
She drew her bow and fired instantly.
WOOSH
The basilisk screamed—its eye had been pierced, causing excruciating pain and making it thrash wildly on the staircase, threatening to collapse the building.
Euphy didn't hesitate, bursting out onto the second floor and smashing through a window to reach the rooftop.
"This is a nightmare…"
From above, she watched as more and more colored mists flooded the city streets, showcasing countless mutant basilisks.
"Euphy, you idiot! Of course, the citizens were evacuating while I was fighting. Of course there are no weak cultivators or poorly guarded borders. What there is, is a damn tamer and a damn city full of basilisks!"
She slapped her own face with a growl, then created an escape route across the rooftops.
With a sigh, she fled.
…
"How powerful is a cultivator?" Kai asked the mayor as he tried to regain his strength.
Dozens of reply letters lay on the table before them—attempts to recruit more people to their side.
"Very, very powerful. And they're all damn cockroaches—extremely hard to kill. Always remember that: they never die!" he said, reading the letters. "But power alone doesn't mean they know how to use it. Cultivation isn't about power—that's just a side effect."
Kai frowned and asked for clarification.
"It's similar to you demons. You use Primordial Force—a resource everyone possesses, yet only a few know how to wield. Cultivators have their own energy source, far more powerful, and still may not know how to use it in combat. In fact, many cultivators are researchers or rely on external power. Condor is a perfect example: most of its cultivators depend on mutant reptiles. In an attempt to recreate dragons—with remarkable success despite lacking actual dragons—they still created a hydra."
"And what about those focused on combat?" Kai asked again.
"Well, in that case… even a beginner or someone with little potential has power close to that of a common demon."
"So you could defeat a demon?" Kai asked.
The mayor laughed and shook his head vigorously.
"No. Not a chance. Every demon fought relentlessly to reach their current level, and all of them possess aura. Cultivators generally don't. That means we always become far weaker when facing demons—or even ordinary Sinners."
Kai took a deep breath, slowly piecing together the picture of the coming conflict.
There was one demon and several hundred Sinners under its command.
After the battle with the Rat King, in an optimistic scenario, those numbers might be reduced by half.
Kai envisioned a battle of at least three hundred Sinners and one demon against a single cultivator—himself, and perhaps Euphy—likely avoiding direct involvement in human affairs (unaware of what she had already done).
He frowned. The math didn't add up.
He could thin their numbers considerably, but it still felt overwhelming.
"I know my plan can give us hope, but things are still far from ideal. So please, give me some good news," he said to the mayor.
"And I do have good news," the mayor replied. "Most cultivators wanted to abandon ship and let this brotherhood do whatever it pleased. However! Once they heard about a noble tiger giving everything he had to protect humble mortal villages, they decided to join the battle and prove that Axel will not bow to those damn barbarians! Hahaha!"
The mayor laughed cheerfully, softening the emotionally charged words written in the letters before him.
Once again, Kai frowned deeply. He had been avoiding this question for a long time.
But this time he had to ask that question.
"Not to complain, but why the hell do these people want to help us? What relevance does it have that I'm a tiger?"
The mayor stared at him, suddenly confused.
"You don't know?" he asked incredulously. "You really don't know?"
"No. Tigers are sacred because… what? Some religion worships us? A god had a tiger friend?"
"No, no, of course not! If that were the case, tigers wouldn't be nearly this important. Axel is a secular country. Everyone believes in something different—we have thousands of gods and goddesses."
"Then why?"
"Because this is the country of tigers! Axel isn't the land of men or cultivators—it's the land of tigers!"
…
"When Kai asked me to come to Condor, I'm sure he meant: 'Oh, Euphy, you managed to infiltrate the king of Axel's castle right under everyone's noses without getting caught… surely you won't have any trouble infiltrating Condor for me.'"
She sighed deeply amidst the tall grass, watching more and more sentinels searching for her on horseback.
They constantly released dogs to track her, while she sighed repeatedly, trying to stay hidden.
"At least I'm almost there," she muttered, looking at a castle on the horizon.
Carefully, Euphy advanced, though she couldn't help clicking her tongue the closer she got.
"Tsk! They're already on full alert," she cursed while trying to find a safe entrance.
No matter how much she searched, every entrance was guarded.
Still, she persisted as hours passed.
"Damn it… fine. I'll have to go in through the front door."
She sighed deeply, stood up, and drew her weapons.
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
By sheer coincidence, the guards atop the wall were called elsewhere, creating a gap in the defenses.
"Finally!"
She immediately scaled the wall and searched for a window to enter the castle.
Inside the ornate corridors, Euphy looked around tensely.
"All clear."
She sprinted through the hallways, searching for what she had come for.
At first she remained tense, but soon noticed that the guards were busy with something else, conveniently moving out of her way.
"My lucky day!" she chuckled.
Before long, she reached the underground chambers, where behind iron bars rested an albino serpent with feathered wings.
"Don't be afraid. Big sister Euphy will take very good care of you."
She quickly used a lockpick to open the cell, grabbed the snake, and retraced her path out of the castle.
"Mission complete!" Euphy laughed. "In stealth mode."
…
"She's already gone?" asked a silver-haired young woman sipping tea, turning to a knight, who nodded in response.
Anya let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Thank the gods! What a relief! That unbearable girl is finally gone. A little longer and I'd have had to burn the castle down just to get rid of her disgusting smell."
The knight coughed.
"Manners, my lady. Manners."
"Oh, pardon me. I almost sound like an animal like her when I talk that way," the young woman laughed playfully. "Well, at least now I can help my dear Kai."
She chuckled and lifted her teacup.
"It's been so long since I last saw him. I miss his scent, his hugs, and his… ah, yes. Please take care of Euphy's traces. We don't want any incidents."
"As you wish, my lady."